Klamath River News: March 30

Klamath River News: March: 30
* FEDERAL SUIT FILED OVER CALIFORNIA HATCHERY
* ANALYSIS: SUIT ADDS TWIST TO KLAMATH DAMS
* IMPOUNDED BOATS SYMBOLIZE AILING FISHING INDUSTRY
* APPEAL COURT UPHOLDS WATER FOR FISH BEFORE FARMS
* BOARD DENIES TOXIC ALGAE PLEAS

ACTION ALERTS
COMMENT ON THE LOST RIVER TMDL, OR POLLUTION CLEAN UP PLAN: June 15th
CLEAN UP THE SHASTA RIVER: TMDL action plan comments due April 23rd
HELP STOP HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF PUBLIC LANDS SPRAYING: April 9th
JOIN THE KLAMATH RIVERKEEPER TODAY!


FEDERAL SUIT FILED OVER CALIFORNIA HATCHERY
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- An environmental group sued an energy company and California's wildlife agency Tuesday over claims that a fish hatchery is releasing pollution that is deadly to fish downstream in a river that was once brimming with salmon.
Klamath Riverkeeper, part of an environmental alliance headed by Robert Kennedy Jr., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, alleging that discharges from the hatchery violated the Clean Water Act.
At issue is the hatchery at the Iron Gate Dam located on the Klamath River near the Oregon border. The dam is operated by the California Department of Fish and Game and owned by PacifiCorp, an energy company based in Portland, Ore.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032702690.html

ANALYSIS: SUIT ADDS TWIST TO KLAMATH DAMS
By HIL ANDERSON
UPI Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, March 30 (UPI) -- A California environmental group this week opened a new front in the battle to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River that had become bogged down in a standoff over economic forecasts.
http://www.upi.com/Energy/analysis_suit_adds_twist_to_klamath_dams/20070329-101219-9015r/


IMPOUNDED BOATS SYMBOLIZE AILING FISHING INDUSTRY
Coos Bay, Ore., harbormaster resigns in face of unpleasant duties
By Jeff Barnard - The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, Ore. -- Don Yost, harbormaster in Coos Bay for the past 18 years, was handed a list of seven salmon fishermen and instructed to seize their boats because they had fallen months behind in paying their mooring fees.
Yost, who knew every man on the list, quit rather than comply.
"I was directed to lock their boats up, put them up on dry land in the shipyard, and effectively end their livelihoods. And I -- I drew the line," said Yost, who resigned in mid-February. "That's essentially the last nail in the proverbial coffin for them, and I wasn't going to be the one driving the nail."
Nearly all salmon fishing was prohibited last year along 700 miles of the Oregon and California coast because of three straight years in which the numbers of spawning salmon returning to the Klamath River were low. The state of Oregon came up with $1 million in emergency relief that helped some fishermen stave off bankruptcy, but California offered nothing, and federal aid never materialized either.
http://www.centredaily.com/216/story/55175.html


APPEAL COURT UPHOLDS WATER FOR FISH BEFORE FARMS
By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling forcing a federal irrigation project to boost flows in the Klamath River to help threatened salmon even if it means shutting off water to farms.
Winter snowpack and reservoir levels this year hold enough water to provide irrigation as well as flows to sustain Klamath River coho salmon, said Cecil Lesley, chief of the water and lands division of the Klamath Basin office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
But the ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco could set up a repeat of the 2001 irrigation shut-off to farms on the Klamath Reclamation Project the next time drought hits southern Oregon and Northern California.
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-18/117512935936780.xml&storylist=orlocal


BOARD DENIES TOXIC ALGAE PLEAS
John Driscoll The Times-Standard
Federal energy law pre-empts regional water quality officials' regulation of blue-green algae in the Klamath River's reservoirs, officials said Thursday in denying requests by the Karuk Tribe and fishing and environmental groups for strict limits on Pacificorp's hydropower operations.
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board agreed with its counsel that the Federal Power Act trumps its authority, and that the restriction on the production of toxic algae would have to come through state certification of the federal license Pacificorp is seeking.
The Karuk Tribe, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Klamath Riverkeeper asked the board to impose waste discharge requirements on Pacificorp's project. Michael Lozeau, an attorney for the tribe, argued that the state and federal processes don't address the need to take action on the algae problem now.
The operation itself is producing the problem, Lozeau said. It's not flowing in from somewhere else.?
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_5450958




Action Alerts:
FREEMONT-WINEMA AND MODOC NATIONAL FOREST HAVE GIANT SPRAY PLANS ON KLAMATH:
Comments on Freemont Winema due by April 9th
The Freemont-Winema National Forest is planning to treat up to 156,000 acres
with herbicides such as Chlorsulfuron, Clopyralid, Glyphosate, Imazapic,
Imazapyr, Metsulfuron Methyl, Picloram, Sethoxydim, Sulfometuron Methyl, and
Triclopyr for noxious weed management. Much of this spray could occur on
tributaries to the Klamath RIver.
The Modoc National Forest directly below the Freemont-Winema is also planning
a 7,000 acre plus spray plan, in which they are getting ready to make a final
decision.
Please ask the Forest Service to not spray near the Klamath River, which
already has massive chemical use on it's Wildlife Refuges, BLM lands, and
private farm and forestry lands. Ask the Forest Service to try the proven
non-toxin noxious weed removal methods, such as burning, mulching and manual
removal.
For Freemont Winema info go to:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/frewin/projects/analyses/2007invasives/
Contact the Klamath Riverkeeper at klamath [at] riseup.net to sign onto comments.


COMMENT ON THE LOST RIVER TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Loads) OR POLLUTION CLEAN UP PLAN comments due by June 15, 2007
EPA is soliciting public comments on proposed Total Maximum Daily Loads
(TMDLs) for Nitrogen and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) for several water bodies in the Lost River watershed in California. (Please see public notice below.) EPA is establishing these Lost River TMDLs because California will not be completing TMDLs by the schedule prescribed under a consent decree.
The deadline for submitting comments on these draft TMDLs is on or before June 15, 2007. Comments may be mailed, faxed or emailed (please send a hard copy of your comments in additional to emailing them).
Submit comments to: Gail Louis (louis.gail [at] epa.gov) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 972-3467 Fax (415)947-3537

For further information about these TMDLs, including copies of the Public Draft TMDL document and technical support documents, please see EPA's website at: http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/tmdl/progress.html
For Lost River TMDL talking point contact the Klamath Riverkeeper at klamath [at] riseup.net or 530 627-3280 (in California) or 541 951-0126 (in Oregon)


ASK THE REGIONAL WATER BOARD TO CLEAN UP THE DWINNELL RESERVOIR AND SHASTA RIVER
Comments on Shasta TMDL due on APRIL 23rd
Dwinnell Reservoir (also known as Lake Shastina) was built at river mile 40 on the Shasta River in 1926 blocking all fish passage. Within ten years Spring Chinook salmon, which had been abundant in this river which rises on the north slopes of Mount Shasta and Mount Eddy, were extinct in the watershed. Nevertheless, as recently as the late 1990s the California Department of Fish & Game declared the Shasta River the most important watershed to survival of Klamath Fall Chinook.
In 2005 as part of developing a clean-up plan for the polluted Shasta River, the North Coast Water Quality Board commissioned a study of Dwinnell Reservoir. Water quality tests revealed a shallow reservoir which is highly polluted. High water temperature and high nutrients have combined to produce a reservoir subject to unhealthy algae blooms. Among algae species found in Dwinnell Reservoir is Anabaena flos-aquae, one of the most toxic strains of cyanobacteria, a type of blue-green algae.
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/northcoast/
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/03/22/18381414.php

JOIN THE KLAMATH RIVERKEEPER TODAY
Help save the Klamath Salmon and Clean up the Klamath River.
After only seven months fighting for the Klamath River, the Klamath
Riverkeeper has made a big difference in the fight to save the Klamath Salmon
and Un-Dam the Klamath. However we can't do it without your help and impute.
Join the Klamath Riverkeeper today and help us to shape the future of the
Klamath River.
Your membership will support:
Enforcing the Clean Water Act Basin Wide, Toxic Algae Clean Up Campaign,
our efforts in the movement to Un-Dam the Klamath and Save the Klamath Salmon
and Steelhead, Community Water Quality Monitoring, Outreach and Education
activities throughout the west, Publishing the "Black Oak, Environmental
Justice where Oregon meets California? and the Klamath River E-News.

Have questions, ready to join? Give us a call or send a letter or check to:
Klamath Riverkeeper
P.O. Box 21 Orleans, CA 95556
530 627-3280 (in California) 541 951-0126 (in Oregon)

The Klamath River News covers issues related to Klamath River environmental and social justice.
To get involved or add a story contact the Klamath Riverkeeper at klamath [at] riseup.net or call (530) 627-3280 or 541 951-0126.
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